SportsShoes Blog

Well I’ve got a big challenge already in the bag for 2009. Me and a group of my cycling pals are going out to France in July to ride La Marmotte - it’s a 173km road cycle route around the Alps which finishes with the famous Tour de France climb up Alpe d’Huez. It attracts around 5000 riders each year so it should be quite a day out.

We are also planning to ride the Fred Whitton in the Lakes in May which is 100 mile tour of the Lakes taking in all the big road passes. Although there are around 200 riders it is estimated that only around 15% actually manage to ride the whole course without resorting to pushing!!! Should be fun….

Before all that though is the very serious business of the Santa Cycle - this year it’s on the 20th December and if you’ve got a bike and a santa suit you’re welcome to come along. It all started about 13 years ago when a small group of Mountain Bikers from Eldwick had an idea to do a Christmas ride dressed in santa suits - it was a great laugh and so a tradition was born and now each year around 20 santas make the journey from Eldwick to Bolton Abbey tea rooms via Ilkley. I think this will be my 6th santa cycle (I’m a relative newbie) and I can tell you it is such a great day out. People always ask if we do it for charity and the answer is no - we don’t want anyone to feel obliged to give money we just want to spread some festive cheer - the looks on the kids faces as we cycle round Ilkley singing carols is just amazing and the number of honks, cheers and waves we get from passing motorists of all ages is ace. A few years ago we even managed to get on the front page  of the Ilkley Gazzette as a reporter spotted us and got us to pose for a photo down near the river. Apparently we also feature in Bolton Abbey’s brochure - they love us in the tea room and we’re usually given a free brew in return for a couple of verses of Rudolph in front of the fire (mind you that’s after we’ve spent about 300 quid on grub to fuel the fire for the return leg back over Keighley Gate).

I keep getting people saying they’ve read my blog which is great so a big hello to Romero (who, despite his name has got a stronger Yorkshire accent than me) and Tricky - one of the cycling santas who is a steel rimmed glasses and grey haired high flying bank manager by day and a Freddie Mercury impersonator by night (only ‘half’ joking - but his Freddie outfit at the 80s night we went to a few weeks ago was a sight to behold…).

It’s awful isn’t it….

I think I have Seasonaly Affected Disorder (SAD) or something. Everytime I venture out it’s dark, cold, wet or all three.

Last Thursday we did a hard and fast 9 mile blast round Eldwick, Baildon and Saltaire, Friday I went to work on the bike then Saturday I did a man v bike race on my singlespeed Kona. Boy that was a toughie - I reckon I carried it more than I rode it round the 6 mile course - quite a laugh to look back on but at the time I remember thinking “what am I doing!!”

Saturday night I was at a big party for some friends of mine who were turning 40 so Sunday was an easy day - me and my son went down to Myrtle park on our bikes to watch Rob Jebb win yet another cyclo-cross race (even though he was at the same party as me!!) - he makes it all look so easy.

Monday I cycled to work again then Tuesday night did 6 x 2min 40 second laps with a 1.5 min recovery jog on the field. Very cold - I had frost on my Buff when I’d finished (& you don’t want that let me tell you).

Going out tonight for a 50 min spin while my youngest plays footie — don’t feel like at the min but once I get my iPod cranked up and get out there I’m sure I’ll be fine.

No big races to look forward to yet - probably going to be next year now before anything exciting on that front.

Talking of next year, me and the boys are planning our races and trips so once they’re sorted I’ll let you know what I intend to do…

Saturday - decided to race tomorrow at Oldfield. This is a nice little local fell race - just 5.5miles and 550ft of climb. Oldfield’s just about 8 miles from home so I’m going to cycle over to the race, run it, then cycle back - should be a decent training session.

As I’m racing tomorrow I just did a steady 40 mins this morning - similar route to yesterday but in reverse.

I’d left my trainers out all night so they were nice and squishy when I put them on this morning - didn’t notice after first field crossing!!